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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Though I'd consider myself a pretty crafty person since Connor was born my crafting days have been pretty much at a still. Between constantly chasing my little man around to homework to the blog I barely have time to breath much less make my own cards. Though a few years ago I would have considered it a special treat to make cards for the people I love. I think that stems from the fact that I personally believe that there is nothing more special than a handmade card or a hand written letter. With that said I've always wanted to make a scrapbook but you can imagine if I don't have time for cards when would I ever have time for scrap booking?

With that said its been years, and I mean years, since I last touched a software package that helps you make cards or scrapbook pages. To be honest my last experience was in high school with dot matrix printer and to be totally honest back then without the use of a laser printer computer generated cards were a little disappointing so I really didn't know what to expect when it came to Hallmark Card Studio 2009 Deluxe and the Hallmark Scrapbook Studio Deluxe.

I was anxious to try out Hallmark Card Studio 2009 Deluxe as being on a student budget means saving money anywhere I can is always a top priority and with 30+ kids in the family we attend quite a few birthday parties and each birthday party means a new birthday card and it seems sometimes I'm buying two or three cards a week. So printing my own cards would be a dream come true not to mention a way to personalize my cards just the way I want to! So the question is was this new Hallmark Card Studio good enough to pass for real cards?

Well using the Hallmark Card Studio 2009 Deluxe is really not much different than using the version I remember from high school. After you set up the software you can browse the cards based on the type of event. More importantly Hallmark Card Studio 2009 Deluxe is not just for cards, I was really impressed to find out that you can also make calenders, postcards, stationary, invitations, and more! Connor's 2nd birthday is coming up sooner than I would like to admit and last year I think I spent 30+ dollars on invitations and even more with thank you cards for his birthday. This year I plan on making his invitations using the Hallmark Card Studio 2009 Deluxe which I'm excited to say will save me a ton of money!! Yay!

My biggest concern was the quality of the cards you can make with the software and with some trial and error I've found that the quality of the cards depends totally on your printer and the card stock you use. My first couple attempts I used the paper stock I used to use for my handmade cards.. and though the results they did come out looking like printed cards which is what I wanted to avoid. So I remembered I had some photo quality postcard stock in my secret stash and I set my printer to its highest photo setting and made a trial run postcard style invitation which is my favorite type for invites anyways as they are the cheapest to mail. The results were really fabulous and really unless you were looking for it you wouldn't know that I printed them on my printer!

Make sure there is a way for me to contact you - if your email address is not on your profile or you are not a blogger you may leave it in your comment or email it to me directly (angelaandconnor at gmail dot com) We have had to disqualify a lot of potential winners as of late as many people do not have emails available in their profiles or leave anonymous posts without any way to contact you.

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I have an older version of Hallmark Card Studio (really old) that we use all the time to make cards. Much cheaper than going to the store to get one. I would love to be able to organize all my pictures! Thanks for the giveaway!

I set a goal for myself to send birthday cards to all my (and my husband's) immediate family. I've done pretty well, and am sending anniversary cards now too. I'd love to create a years worth of cards so I have them on hand to send out when each special date is coming up.beccachristensen at hotmail dot com

I would use the scrapbook Studio to finally make my book for our wedding pictures. We've been married for 3 1/2 years and have not done anything with our pile of wedding pictures. I really need something like this to help me get them in a book. I hope I win. I love making cards. I would use the Card Studio to make our thank you cards for when we moved and had our friends help move us.

I would use various stationery pages and type in various size fonts and types some fun info for each family member. I'd type on the stationery page their name, it's meaning, and where it originated in history. I'd give it to people with either their birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, Anniversary gifts, or a simple thank you gift. I'd probably roll up the page like a scroll and tie it with a pretty ribbon. For the youngsters in the family, I'd probably laminate flat it or put it in a frame. I'd include their date of birth at the top. They could then incorporate the page into their own physical scrapbooks, or scan it and use it in their digital scrapbooks, or hang it up on a bedroom wall. I think it's fun that people know their name, meaning of the name, variations of the name throughout history and location where it was used before.

I subscribe, and I can't type correctly. In my post above of typed flat it, it should be it flat. I hate when my hands don't type the words in the right order. P.S. I'm terrible in English, but good in math, so go figure.

When I went to the site, it said the Hallmark Card program could make unique cards for special occasions. The first thing I would do is make Valentine Cards or Birthday Cards for four family members that have birthdays in February and March. But what I really love is scrapbooking, so this is what I am most interested in!TRigell at aol dot com

First, I would complete a Christmas scrapbook for my daughter-in-law who is patiently waiting, then birthday cards and invitations for my granddaughter's birthday. Just thinking of all the images and embellishments I could print off the Scrapbook 2009 brings tears of joy to my eyes. I have always made my own cards, so now I could make them look more professional with the Hallmark Card Kit! Yahoo!

I've spent the last two years working on a cookbook for my son, who is now on his own and missing home cooked meals. We live thousands of miles from our 'home' area and you can't get the food we grew up on at any restaurant. Although I was always artistic and crafty, I am struggling with this project. I was adding pictures of him or family members that used to make this for him and it turns out that my creativity does not extend to scrap books. He has watched anxiously for this present for the last few years and is about to give up hope. And I'm about ready to just print them up and put them in a card file, but the scrapbook was such a great idea.

If I won this, I would take all of the pictures from my mothers childhood, and through until now and organize them and scrapbook them up and put them on cd's for any family members that would like to have them. This of course will take me a very, very long time because my mother is 68 yrs old and that's a lot of memories to go thru. LOL the fun part is trying to remember who half the people were. :)

I would start with that Scrapbook Studio Deluxe (wow! 1,200+ Templates and 7,000+ Hallmark Art Images?!). I have a few years worth of my childrens' pictures that I haven't done a THING with! I would make each of them a beautiful memory book of their first years!

I would take all of the wonderful photos that I've taken of my 2 granddaughters, and make a scrapbook with the photos along with poetry that I've written throughout the years. I think that when they were older, they would appreciate this.

Im embarassed to admit that my second niece is a year and a half old and I havent even started a scrapbook for her yet. I have made many for her older sister. This would really help me get started!!donnac36@comcast.net